Ziploc has partnered with Recyclebank in order to provide incentives for consumers to recycle its products, including the company's plastic bags which cannot be placed in home recycling bins. Ziploc itself is not providing any additional recycling centers, but consumers can earn discounts on its products by recycling and signing up with Recyclebank to redeem their awards.

Other companies who have joined forces with Recyclebank included Visa, Friskies, Naked juice, Verizon, Coca Coca and many more. It seems that more companies are finding "green marketing strategies" beneficial to their public image, but are such partnerships really providing an environmental benefit?

The majority of the companies signing on include manufacturers of single-use products. Incentives in the form of coupons to purchase new products encourages the further consumption of these single-use products. Theoretically, as long as the consumer keeps recycling, they can continue the process of landfill diversion. Although we at CAW believe in increased opportunities to recycle, we also believe that reducing the amount of waste we produce as individuals involves changing our behavior-including limiting our use of single-use products.

Hopefully, incentives through Recyclebank not only encourage consumers to recycle products they receive coupons for, but also other products through their traditional home bins as well. If you have a product that can't be recycled in your green bin at home, visit our homepage and click "Where to Recycle" for recycling options for items such as e-waste, hazardous waste, construction and demolition debris, and other products.